Past Exhibitions

Our Past Exhibitions

2019

February 15 – April 13, 2019

John D. Lawrence, Callaway Professor of Art and Design, is the Director of the Lamar Dodd Art Center of LaGrange College. He joined the faculty at LaGrange College in 1970. Since that time, he has been active in the cultural life of LaGrange, as well as, Georgia and the Southeast area, in general. As the Director of the Lamar Dodd Art Center, he has established one of the largest college museum collections of twentieth century photography in the Southeast. In 1982, Mr. Lawrence served as Visual Arts Director of the Atlanta Arts Festival in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA. He was also the Curator of the 1981, Artists in Georgia, exhibition. In 2002 Mr. Lawrence was inducted into the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters from which he received the 2002 Award in Photography. In 2005 he produced photographs for a book published celebrating the 175th anniversary of LaGrange College.

John Lawrence, Swan Song, Hadrian’s Villa, 1994, Chromogenic Print.

The Society of Seven is a group of realist plein air and studio painters based in and around Newnan, Georgia. Their work promotes and educates the theories and practices of the modern day plein air and realist art movement. Painting from life in oil paint is at the core of our work. Members include David Boyd, Jr., Sue Christman, Millie Gosch, Dana Johnson, Martin Pate, Elsa Sibley and Brenda Sumpter. All the works will be for available for purchase.

Images: David Boyd, Brenda Sumpter, and Martin Pate.

2018

Opening Reception: September 8, 7-9 PM
FREE to the public

This annual exhibition gives local, amateur, and emerging artists who are members of VAAL to exhibit their work in a museum setting. The mission of VAAL is to bring together LaGrange area artists to form a more cohesive and supportive artist community, foster their activities, and to amplify their visibility and voice in the wider community.

Images left to right:
Lanora Pierce Yates, Portrait of a Young Woman. Terri Codlin, A Different Perspective. Lisa McCoy, Ma Rainey.

May 29 – August 18, 2018

This summer enjoy artworks from the Permanent Collection, Chuck Moore and Deborah McNeil + RL Hughey, Jr. This exhibition is inspired by the Slow Art Movement, enabling viewers to slow down, spending more time interacting and consciously savoring artworks.

This juried exhibit showcased work by elementary, middle, and high school students – public and private, throughout a 4 county area. Now in its 25th year, this annual event began in 1993 as an outreach program for high school art students in Troup County and the surrounding areas, and has grown over the years.

The LaGrange Southeast Regional provides the citizens of West Georgia and East Alabama access to current artistic practice; offers artists exhibition opportunities and purchase possibilities; and affords the LaGrange Art Museum and the Lamar Dodd Art Center a means for the development of significant collections of contemporary American art. Both organizations have been extremely fortunate to have generous support from the Callaway Foundation of LaGrange who has provided purchase award funds to further their growing collections. Exhibition funding also provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts.

The LaGrange Southeast Regional traces its roots to the LaGrange National Competition which began in 1964 when a competitive show known as the Gardens Art Festival was organized and sponsored by the Chattahoochee Valley Art Association, LaGrange College and Callaway Gardens. In 1974, the competition was moved to LaGrange, took the name LaGrange National, and was expanded from a regional to a national show. In 1984, the competition expanded again and displayed in two locations, with the Chattahoochee Valley Art Association Museum and the Lamar Dodd Art Center, of LaGrange College.

The LaGrange Southeast Regional provides the citizens of West Georgia and East Alabama access to current artistic practice; offers artists exhibition opportunities and purchase possibilities; and affords the LaGrange Art Museum and the Lamar Dodd Art Center a means for the development of significant collections of contemporary American art. Both organizations have been extremely fortunate to have generous support from the Callaway Foundation of LaGrange who has provided purchase award funds to further their growing collections. Exhibition funding also provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts.

CATEGORIES
The categories include: Drawings, Paintings, Prints, Sculpture, Photography, Ceramics & Mixed Media. You must indicate which category your submission falls under for each individual entry. You may enter more than one category, just be sure to include the category you have selected along with each submission’s detail requirements. Select the category for your work that you think is appropriate.

VENUE
The venues for the exhibition are the LaGrange Art Museum, (Paintings, Prints, and Drawings) and the Lamar Dodd Art Center of LaGrange College, (Photography, Ceramics, Sculpture, and Mixed Media).

Exhibition is FREE to Troup County Residents
Non-Residents we ask for a $10.00 Donation

2017

2016

The First LaGrange Southeast Regional
Opening Reception: February 19, from 7-9 pm
Exhibition: February 19-April 2, 2016
The 1st LaGrange Southeast Regional features an extraordinary, rich body of art work selected from over 400 works submitted by almost 150 artists representing the twelve-state Southeastern United States. It celebrates the rich legacy of talent within our region, provides its citizens access to current artistic practice, and offers artists exhibition opportunities and purchase possibilities.

The Art Museum collects and presents contemporary art by emerging and established artists with an emphasis on regional artists as well as outsider and folk artists from the lower Chattahoochee Trace; the Regional affords the LaGrange Art Museum a means for increasing its permanent holdings through Purchase Awards.

Sponsored by the Callaway Foundation and the LaGrange Art Museum with special support provided by the Charlie & Joy Flint Fund.

2015

Mirror Mirror
October 9, 2015- January 16, 2016
In partnership with Hills & Dales, this exhibit linked the Art Museum as community participant along with the Legacy Museum, in the year-long celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Callaway family home.

Featuring portraiture-mirroring-portraiture, this unique exhibit compared photographs with paintings, taking a look at portraiture across centuries and cultures and included some of Troup County’s best known citizens as well as some of its unsung. The upper floor of the Museum featured a retrospective of Signe Gruschovenko’s contemporary twist on portraiture. Mirror Mirror was proudly sponsored by Renasant Bank.

VAAL: Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange
Featuring Artist Sarah Swanson
August 28- September 26, 2015
This annual show enables local amateur and emerging artists who are members of VAAL to exhibit their work in a Museum setting. Sarah Swanson graduated with a BFA from Augusta State University, Georgia, in 2001. Her artistic focus is on figure drawing and portraiture but she delves into abstracts, collages, and paintings as well.She has portraits and commissions in local government, corporate, and private collections and has won awards at several regional art shows.
The Painted Strings Project: Also on display were violins and cellos, painted by local artists benefiting the LaGrange
Symphony Guild Youth Programs (painted instruments to be auctioned at a later date).

Our County Collects
June 12- August 15, 2015
“Our County Collects” showcased Troup County residents’ passionate pursuit of every imaginable kind of collectable object from wind-up toys, political buttons, antique cameras, vintage guitars, coins, bells, cartoons, potttery to a host of other artifacts and memorabilia. With almost 30 area collectors sharing their treasures, “Our County Collects” was a salute to the long and diverse tradition of collecting that built the LaGrange Art Museum over 50 years ago.

2014

Va Va Va Vroom
Diners, Dizzy, & Drives
October 17, 2014- February 28, 2015
This look down memory lane combined the history of freewheeling with the history of jazz and took us from Soap Box Derby to Sturgis and from Dixieland to Dizzy Gillespie. From Bo Callaway’s wooden soap box racer to the American Indian, this show featured the motercycle collection of Warm Springs Auctioneer Preston Evans, and the staggering vinyl jazz collection of a young English boy in pre-World War II who traded with stationed GI’s.

VAAL: Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange
September 5 – October 4, 2014
This show enables local amateur and emerging artists who are members of VAAL to exhibit their work in a Museum setting.
Featuring Gail Grice: Artist & Teacher
Gail is a native of Georgia currently residing in LaGrange. Her appreciation of natural beauty is reflected in her paintings.

Norman Rockwell: THE MAN BEHIND THE CANVAS
June 13, 2014- August 22, 2014
This exhibit featured original, candid photographs of America’s iconic illustrator Norman Rockwell on loan from the Charles and Joy Flint Collection, Lenox, Massachusetts. This exhibit explored the man behind the canvas throught the lens of his photographer, Louis Lamone, and introduced America’s most beloved illustrator to the Chattahoochee Valley Community in a never-before-seen glimpse into his private life through anecdotal and personal memorabilia. Also featured were more than 100 Saturday Evening Post covers on loan to the Museum by Cindy Jamison Fulks from the collection of her father, the late Chris Jamison, Professional Artist.

LaGrange National XXVIII
February 21, 2014 – April 18, 2014
The LaGrange National Biennial is a juried competition open to all artists in the United States. The Lamar Dodd Art Center and the LaGrange Art Museum are the sponsors, with major support from the Callaway Foundation. Well over 300 artists from 42 states plus the District of Columbia applied for participation in the event this year, and 115 works were selected by juror Annette Cone-Skelton from over 1,100 submissions from some of the finest new works by professional artists from throughout the country.

2013

October 11, 2013 through January 31, 2014Under The Prairie Sky: A Look at the American West
This all-encompassing look at the American West forms a truly uncommon view of our Western Heritage and its iconic images. Experience a 100 year reflection of Western art through traditional paintings and sculpture as well as the geometric shapes and dramatic color found in Native American objects. Andy Warhol’s contemporary interpretations of iconic figures and Senator Barry M. Goldwater’s stunning black and white photography capture and define our perceptions of the West.

August 23, 2013 – September 28, 2013VAAL: Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange
A perfect end-of-summer exhibition showcases the local talent of artists of the Visual Artists Alliance of LaGrange.
Annie Greene: Painter, Craftswoman, Educator
This reprise of Georgia Farm Life in the 1940’s: The Farm in Yarn will introduce this beloved series to a new generation. Georgia Farm Life includes 37 yarn paintings depicting Annie’s experiences during two summers spent on her grandparents’ farm in Adel. A story told in Annie’s own words accompanies each painting.

May 10, 2013 – August 10, 2013A Mother’s Day Celebration: Creative Energy, a Celebration of Spring
This exhibit is a family-friendly Celebration of the Creative Energies of Spring featuring seldom seen works by French post-impressionist, Eugène A Carrière as well as select works by locally revered mother-of-watercolor, Morrill Turner Hutchinson and the Museum’s Permanent Collection.

February 15, 2013 – April 27, 2013Retrospective: Photographs by Douglas Kirkland
“Red Carpet Runway… A Night with Marilyn”
This touring Exhibition is organized and circulated by the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, Florida.
2012

October 12, 2012 – January 19, 2013American Folk Hero: Outsider Art of Georgia and Alabama
This show features works from the private collection of almost one dozen local and regional art collectors and will discuss America’s last folk hero, the folk artist, focusing on works by Georgia and Alabama “outsider artists”. The Exhibit will also include the works of Columbus-based woodworker Jack Key and blown glass form the Matt Janke Studio, Atlanta.

September 7, 2012 – September 29, 2012VAAL, Jill Philips, and Donna Jackson
A perfect end-of-summer exhibition combines the giant garden insects of metal-worker Donna Jackson with the out-of-door artistry of Jill Philips, and showcases the local talent of artists of the Visual Artist Alliance of LaGrange.

May 1, 2012 – August 25, 2012Permanent Collection
Since its inception, the Museum has collected a wealth of mementos, photographs, and archival materials. This is an exhibit showcasing works from our permanent collection.

February 10, 2012 – April 20, 2012LaGrange National XXVII
The Museum partners with the Lamar Dodd Art Center of LaGrange College to announce a call to artists for entry in the 28th biannual juried competition open to all artists in the United States. The categories for the competition include Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Photography, Ceramics, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.

2011

October 29, 2011 – January 2012Creative Obscurity: The Genius Noel Rockmore
Noel Rockmore (1928 – 1995) was an American painter, draughtsman, and sculptor based predominately in New Orleans. This show represents the largest collection of Rockmore works ever in one show. The three-venue exhibition will include nearly 200 works of painting, prints, sculpture, drawings and documentation of this undiscovered genius. Rockmore’s work is included in many major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, the Smithsonian, NOMA and others. His famous Jazz portraits are located in Preservation Hall in New Orleans.

April 2011 – August 2011Legends of The Printmaking Workshop Will Barnet, Bob Blackburn, Chaim Koppelman & Tom Laidman Cochran Gallery on the Square
In celebration of the 100-year birthday of visionary and historically important printmaker Will Barnet, this exhibition looks at the work of four key artists in the Printmaking Workshop. This small, but hugely influential print shop became a center for many artists and was an essential part of the development of printmaking in the United States. The show will include prints, drawings, photographs, audio interviews, a film and installation.

May 17, 2011 – October 15, 2011Cult of Personality Selections from the Cochran & Lamar Dodd Art Center Collections
This show will be curated by Megan Johnston LAM Executive Director and LaGrange College Museum Studies student Kathryn Schroeder. Curating from the Wes and Missy Cochran collection and the LaGrange College Lamar Dodd Art Center’s collection, the show will investigate the notion of cult of personality found within contemporary art. From Warhol and Dali to Picasso and Lady Gaga, the intense social and creative intensity of these artists is second to none. Why? What makes the viewer so interested?

May 17, 2011 – August 2011Night Light Reflections: Visions of the New South
Photography by John Dowell
John Dowell presents a contemporary portrait of Atlanta’s nocturnal urban landscapes. This photographic series is a true homage to the city’s unique combination of historic monuments and glittering modernism, so often overlooked. The photographs invite the viewer to question what is real: is it the glittering surfaces, or the reflections they present? Dowell, a professor of Printmaking in the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, has been a painter, printmaker and photographer for almost 50 years.

African Americana
January 29, 2011 – April 2011
African American artists have been instrumental in the development of an American aesthetic; consequently, learning about these artworks is central to understanding our visual culture. This show will look at the history of African American art through both the LAM and Cochran Collections. Works in the show will include prints, drawings, multimedia, and video; genres and concepts to be found include abstract, figurative, conceptual, naturalistic, social and political.
2010

August 14, 2010 – December 31, 2010THE ZHANG FAMILY: From North China to the American South
Though all were educated in China’s “fine line” tradition, the Zhang family –father, mother, and three daughters – are eminently distinctive in style and in choice of subject and medium. Having adopted Western influences, the parents Zhang Sheng and Bai Yu Zhi exhibit an admirable melding of Chinese and Occidental tendencies. Seen together, the Zhangs represent an intriguing microcosm of China’s artistic evolution during the past half century.

August 14, 2010 – October 2, 2010ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE FROM FORM & FUNCTION TO PLACE
This show will look at several key elements in architecture, including form and function; vision and process; and place and vernacular. Exhibiting alongside Elements of Architecture, we will host work by students from Callaway High School entitled ‘Southern Analog’ in the Project Room. The exhibit is a series of photographs revealing the amazing context of visual landscapes in Hogansville.

July 13, 2010 – August 21, 2010LOOK AGAIN Selections from the Permanent Collection
A contemporary look into the present and past of LaGrange Art Museum’s permanent collection. View the collection through the eyes of Megan Johnston, Executive Director. You will find the exhibit inspiring, challenging, and fun place to develop your creativity.

February 27, 2010 – April 17, 2010LAGRANGE NATIONAL BIENNIAL XXVI
The Museum partners with Lamar Dodd Art Center of LaGrange College to host the LaGrange National Biennial is a juried competition open to all artists in the United States.
2009

October 24, 2009 – February 12, 2010SPINNING YARNS: Southern Stories from the Past
An Annie Greene Exhibition
Although Greene is best known for her yarn art she is a painter, craftsman and retired educator. Her paintings frequently reflect culturally and socially relevant images of her life as an African American in the rural south and encompass a variety of subjects such as, music, dance, children’s games, cotton fields and urban life.

September 12, 2009 – October 17, 2009FROM THE EARTH: UNION OF BRONZE & BOTANICALS
From the Earth is a retrospective of the work of Cordray Parker. His life, dedicated to the arts, included the creation of bronze sculpture & watercolor landscapes. Also included is the work of his wife, Loni Parker, who faithfully brings flora to life with watercolors.

July 22, 2009 – September 5, 2009THE MESSAGE IS IN THE MEDIUM
Curlee Holton
Director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College. Exhibition held in conjunction with National Black Arts Festival.

April 21-June 30, 2009QUIET PLACES
An exploration of nature’s elegance through acrylic paintings and mixed media

November 11, 2008 – February 7, 2009LAGRANGE COLLECTS WARHOL
A debut exhibition of Andy Warhol’s works featuring 60 pieces from the collections of 13 LaGrange residents.

May 5-July 10, 2008 FROM THE FIRE: CONTEMPORARY KOREAN CERAMICS
The largest collection of Korean ceramics to come to North America, revealing the adventurous spirit of Korea’s ceramic tradition, 5,000 years after it began.

November 17, 2007 – February 16, 2008RUSSIAN ICON: WINDOWS OF HEAVEN
Eighteenth Century Russian Icons from the Collection of Daniel R. Bibb